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Will millions of Christians give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent?

The Christian season of Lent is one of personal sacrifice. But could it also be a financial hit for such social networking giants as Twitter
TWTR, +0.38%
and Facebook
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?

As strange as the question may seem, it’s perhaps worth asking in light of the sizable number of followers of the faith who have vowed in recent years to forego social media as part of their 40-day Lenten fast (Lent starts on Wednesday). A 2014 survey by the Barna Group, a California research firm, found that 16% of those who observe Lent planned to curtail their use of sites like Facebook and Twitter. By contrast, some other well-known vices—swearing and smoking, for example—were cited by no more than 2% of Lent observers as their abstention item of choice. (Chocolate remained the biggie—30% said they were banning the sweet stuff from their diet throughout Lent.)

Further proof of the abstaining-from-social media trend: Twitter is running third in OpenBible.info’s annual list of the most-mentioned Lenten sacrifices (the list is compiled by reviewing what people are saying on Twitter, oddly enough). And the broader category of “social networking” itself ranked fourth. (Chocolate held the number-one top spot in OpenBible.info’s list.)

All that said, it’s difficult to put a hard figure on how many Christians are abstaining from social media during Lent, researchers note. But there’s at least one way to approach the math. The Gallup polling organization reports that 75.2% of Americans identify themselves as Protestant, Catholic or “other Christian”—a percentage that equates roughly to 240 million individuals, based on the current U.S. population. Even if just a fraction of that group observed Lent and, in turn, chose to forego social media, the figure would be fairly large—as in hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of social media abstainers.

In any case, says Barna Group vice president Roxanne Stone, “it’s a pretty significant number who are doing it.”

And as the Barna group points out, if the figures are calculated to include those who are giving up other forms of technology, the number is even higher. In all, 48% of practicing Protestants and 31% of practicing Christians overall said they were “fasting from technology” during Lent.

But how that number affects the bottom line of social media companies—or chocolate makers, for that matter—is a more complex issue. In the case of social media companies, Wall Street analysts are skeptical of the impact, saying that it’s a seasonal one at best and it can easily be offset by gains in the number of users—or more important, in advertising dollars—at any given time.

“I don’t pay attention to user trends. At a certain scale, it doesn’t matter,” says Brian Weiser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group who tracks social media companies.

Facebook and Twitter representatives did not immediately respond to comment for this story.

Of course, there are businesses that stand to profit from Lent as well: Think restaurants that specialize in seafood or add seafood items to their menus during Lent. That’s because Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays throughout Lent. But while the rule has been in place for centuries, it seems to have been especially embraced of late, says Bret Thorn, who covers the dining industry for Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade publication. He points to chain eateries from Panda Express to Popeye’s that have recently decided to bolster their seafood offerings.

Thorn says resurgence in the Christian faith, particularly among millennials, may have something to do with the culinary shift. But there’s also the fact that fish is becoming increasingly integrated into the American diet. “We’re looking to eat more seafood,” he says.

But the biggest financial beneficiary of Lent may be the faithful themselves. Lovemoney.com, a British financial website, estimates that giving up cigarettes for the 40-day stretch can save a person more than $350. Even foregoing chocolate bars can equate to a $33 bonus.

“It’s a good time of the year to take stock of your life and weed out any bad habits,” says the site.

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